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Siege of Ölengrad
The Siege of Ölengrad took place near the end of the Cold Iron Wars. Kumbhakarna and two legions of devils amassed outside the walls of Ölengrad. The siege was lifted when Jaime and Nitere opened the Cold Iron Gate and released the Fey army on the devil army. Prelude The Cold Iron Wars began in 1965 AL following the Gräbar Expedition's release of the Mother's Fae, into the Dwarven tunnels below Ölengrad. The conflict would continue with great losses for the Dwarvish and Nostromo forces in the Battle of Eisenschmide in early 2015 AL. After being revealed as the Raksasha Kumbhakarna, Damian Easter fled to Hell to begin raising a devil army to invade this plane, as it was the plane of his birth. Borrowing a single legion from the arch fiend Karselphian the attack was intended to be a surprise. The intended attack was discovered, however, when a squad of devils mistimed their jump, landing in Marinton. One of the squad was captured by Christine Demarin and traded intelligence for his freedom to return to Hell, warning of the intended attack on Ölengrad. With this information, Demarin traveled north to warn her husband Gregory Nostromo of the impending siege, taking Clarion Johns and Rasper Hawkborne with her. Demarin arrived in the city and met with an envoy from the Devils who hoped to trade information. The parties met and a great deal of intelligence was gained on the over-confidant devils. Returning to Nostromo with this intelligence, battle plans were drawn and the time and place of the attack were determined. Vel, Jaime, and Lavendarius'ka Genesarose'roh XII (Darius) shortly thereafter. Strength The single legion of devils was a sizable force, the greatest Outsider incursion seen in centuries, and counted nearly 10,000 devils among their ranks. Each devil was armed with a spear and sword, although they were formidable without either weapon and could fight with the long barbs attached to their face. In addition, Kumbhakarna also deployed a specialist team of four more powerful devils to engage Demarin and her allies directly. Nostromo forces were stretched thin, already engaged in conflict with the Mother's Fae. All possible reserves were pulled from the ranks on the Fae front to join the protection of the city, with brought the ranks to two full brigades totaling 5,800 men, mostly pikemen with several companies of archers. Formation Nostromo forces were aligned neatly in tight columns in front of the lower gate. Without siege towers or other weapons of war, it was believed that the devils could be bottlenecked through the gate, canceling their numbers advantage. The decision to engage the devils directly, rather than from behind the wall was in attempt to retain this advantage and prevent the devils, who would still be sick from plane-jumping, the time to recover or build siege towers. If the devils had not attacked, a cavalry charge was planned, to be lead by Commander Arton Ölenson. Additional troops were formed up on the field itself behind spikes and trenches, in hopes to slow the devils movement. Because of the fear of Kumbhakarna's specialist group and their ability to be used to breach the gate, Demarin, Vel, Something, Hawkborne, Johns, Gregory Nostromo, Lord Nostromo, Darius, Sven Rötekloster, and Heinreich Hammerfall were deployed as a specialist group to draw the most powerful forces. Kumbhakarna, an inexperienced commander, lined his troops in a single block formation and simply charged the ranks of the Nostromo forces, counting on superior numbers to win the day, and choosing to spend the battle engaged with Demarin and her specialist team. Siege Kumbhakarna sent his forces straight at the Nostromo defences at the start. The Nostromo defence held as expected, but the devil's individual troop strength and sheer numbers were becoming too much for Nostromo defences a single, coordinated assault would have been able to break the line and force a retreat behind the city's walls Kumbhakarna, met the Nostromo specialist forces